Gestalt Theory Flashcards
Gestalt psychology was first developed by ___ and later by ___ and ___.
Max Wertheimer; Wolf- gang Kohler; Kurt Koffka
Essentially, gestalt psychology is based on the view that psychological phenomena are ___ rather than ___.
organized wholes; specific parts
In gestalt psychology, the “field” can be viewed in terms of “___” and “___.” The figure is what ___, and the ground is the ___.
figure; ground; stands out; background
___ is the lifeblood of growth, means for changing oneself, and one’s experi- ence of the world (Polster & Polster, 1973, p. 101).
Contact
Contact differs from ___, as contact exists when a sense of separateness is maintained. In ___, there is no sep- arateness
fusion
Levels of contact have been described by Perls (1969b, 1969c, 1970) as ___.
five layers of neuroses
Levels of Contact:
The ___ layer refers to reacting to others in unauthentic or patterned ways.
phony
Levels of Contact:
Examples are “How are you?” and “Have a nice day.” More substantial examples include trying to be nice to someone so they will buy something from you.
phony
Levels of Contact:
At the ___ layer is an avoidance of psychological pain.
phobic
Levels of Contact:
Levels of Contact:
___ is the point at which we are afraid to change or move. We may feel
very little, only a sense of being stuck.
Impasse
Levels of Contact:
Perls (1970, p. 25) gives an example of
a marriage in which the partners are no longer in love; they have ideas of what the other should be but no ideas of what the other is really like. They blame each other and are at an impasse. Individuals feel little internal or external support. This is a particularly significant level for making therapeutic
change.
Impasse
At the ___ level we experience our feelings, start to become aware of the
real self, but may do little about the feelings.
implosive
Levels of Contact:
Contact with the ___ layer is authentic and without pretense. For Perls it
was necessary to experience the ___ to become truly alive and authentic.
explosive
___ are the process of connecting to or separating from other or
objects.
Contact boundaries
More specifically, ___ are those that distinguish between one person and another, a person and an object, or the person and a quality of the person (Polster & Polster, 1973, pp. 107–108). ___ are formed by an
individual’s life experiences.
I-boundaries
I-boundaries:
___ are those that may restrict sensations or place them off limits.
Body-boundaries
I-bounderies:
___ refer to values we hold that we are resistant to changing.
Value-boundaries
I-bounderies:
___ refer to events that are often repeated but may not be
thought about or challenged.
Familiarity-boundaries
I-bounderies:
___ are learned at an early age. We learn not to yell, not to
whine, not to touch, and so forth.
Expressive-bounderies
Contact Boundary Disturbances:
___ refers to swallowing whole or accepting others’ views without reviewing them.
Introjection
Contact Boundary Disturbances:
___ refers to the dismissing or disowning of aspects of ourselves by assigning them to others.
Projection
Contact Boundaries Disturbances:
___ consists of doing to ourselves what we want to do to someone
else, or it can refer to doing things for ourselves that we want others to do for
us.
Retroflection
Contact Boundaries Disturbances:
___ refers to varying degrees of avoidance of contact.
Deflection
Contact Boundaries Disturbances:
___ occurs when the boundary between one’s self and others becomes
muted or lessened
Confluence
___ confluence can be experienced as empathy toward individuals or groups.
Healthy
Contact Boundary Disturbances:
___ confluence may serve to isolate individuals from others, as they agree with others without unconditional
positive regard or understanding
Unhealthy
___ refers to what is happening now
rather than what is remembered.
Awareness
___ refers to what is happening now
rather than what is remembered.
Awareness
Awareness of ___ pertains to sensing through seeing, hearing,
touching, or other senses and then expressing oneself through movement or
vocal expression
sensations and actions
Awareness of ___ concerns awareness of both emotional
feelings and physical feelings such as sweaty palms or shortness of breath;
feelings
Awareness of ___ refers to awareness of desires for future events to take
place, such as to graduate from college or to win the lottery
wants
Awareness of
___ concerns larger units of experience than those mentioned,
including how one values others, social and spiritual issues, and other assessments of events related to these.
values and assessments
Assessment in Gestalt Therapy:
___ involves taking in experience through the senses.
Sensation/awareness
Assessment in Gestalt Therapy:
___ refers to moving from awareness to forming a desire or want.
Mobilization
Assessment in Gestalt Therapy:
___ produces emotional arousal and implies contact with self and others.
Contact
___ takes place as the experiencing cycle draws to a close and moves toward other contact experiences.
Withdrawal
___ takes place as individuals disengage from an experience. Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder have difficulty moving from a traumatic event (such as a robbery or a rape) to other events.
Resolution/closure
Therapeutic Change:
Patients may get a new view of themselves or of an old problem or situation.
Discovery
Therapeutic Change:
Patients learn that they have choices and can try out different behaviors. In this process, therapeutic support is particularly important.
Accomodation
Therapeutic Change:
Patients progress from choosing and trying out new behaviors to learning how to make changes in their environment.
Assimilation
Enhancing Awareness:
Sometimes awareness can be enhanced by relatively straightforward questions (Passons, 1975, p. 61). For example, if a patient is talking about her phone conversation with her mother, the therapist may simply say, “What are you aware of now?” to focus on what is happening to the patient in the present.
Awareness statements and questions
Enhancing Awareness:
Sometimes it is helpful simply to ask a client to repeat a behavior, as in “Please wring your hands together again.” In gestalt terms, this makes the figure clearer and more separate from the ground.
Emphasizing awareness
Enhancing Awareness:
Words that are likely to give the pa- tient responsibility for himself and his growth are to be preferred over indirect and vague words.
Enhancing awareness through language
Enhancing Awareness:
Attending to nonverbal behavior can be particularly helpful for the gestalt therapist.
Awareness through nonverbal behavior
Enhancing Awareness:
Sometimes individuals can understand them- selves and others by “becoming” the other person
Awareness of self and others
Enhancing Awareness:
Attending to emotions in gestalt therapy is particularly important because emotions provide energy to mobilize a person and provide an orientation to those aspects of the environment that are impor- tant to the person (Passons, 1975).
Enhancing awareness of feelings
Enhancing Awareness:
Because integrated functioning is an impor- tant goal of gestalt therapy, gestalt therapists attend to those aspects of the indi- vidual that are not integrated.
Awareness through self-dialogue
Enhancing Awareness:
For Perls, dream work was one of the best ways to promote personal integration.
Awareness throu dreams
Enhancing Awareness:
Homework can be assigned that puts individuals in a position of confronting areas that are blocking their emerg- ing awareness.
Awareness through outside therapy
